OK, so I am officially SERIOUS ABOUT THIS SHIT. I had a meltdown over the weekend about how fat I looked in pictures taken of me that day, and yesterday at pilates, I was 130.5, up 0.3 lbs from the previous week. No. Unacceptable.
Here are the steps that I am going to be taking, both new and continued:
Exercise
1. Bike commute (about 60 minutes per weekday)
2. Pilates (one hour-long class per week—maybe two occasionally). I bought a 20-class package but then skipped like 5 shortly after buying it, so I can "afford" to double up for a few weeks. I'd like to do it more often but it's expensive!
3. Making sure I get exercise in on weekend days when I am not riding my bike that AT LEAST is equal in calories burned to my bike rides. This could be hiking, a long walk around the neighborhood, two short runs (I am no good at long runs yet), biking to fun places, taking my roller skates to the bike path at the beach, etc.
4. Make sure to "go extra hard" on exercise if I know I have a day coming up where I will go over my calorie goals. Like if we are going out of town, or if I have a drinking night planned, or next month is my birthday and we have a dinner planned. Squeeze a couple extra walks or runs in that week to at least partially mitigate the damage.
Nutrition
1. Keeping the number of days that I drink to be under 15% of all days, but aiming for even lower than that. 15% is about once a week. But I actually plan to not even drink that often; it's just good for me to set a black-and-white minimum that I
know is achievable.
2. Using a calorie counting program again and sticking to 1200 per day until I hit my goal, then working to find my maintenance point, which, depending on what I learn about my own metabolism and also depending on my exercise each day, will be somewhere around 1500–1900. That's not so bad, really. It leaves room for treats and drinks every now and then.
I think my main problem most of the time is that I get to a point where I'm happy, and I stop paying attention after that. So then things creep up to where I'm unhappy again. As all the sites say, it's a lifestyle change, not a temporary thing, and I don't think I've ever bothered to figure out what "maintenance" looks like for me. It's only asceticism and then indulgence, over and over. No longer!
3. I bought a food scale, due to arrive tomorrow—the first one I've owned since 2009! This one's digital, so it doesn't take up much space. That way I can be exact about the calorie counting, or as exact as I can me.
4. Planning my eating times. Before, I was just eating when I got hungry. A lot of times, that meant that by the time I ate, I was really, really hungry, and probably overate to make up for it. Now, I am having my typical work lunch between 12:00 and 1:30, having a healthy snack in the later afternoon to fuel up for my bike ride, having another healthy snack right when I get home (around 6:00) since I am usually famished after the ride, and then having dinner relatively early—sometime between 7:00–9:00 depending on my schedule. I go to bed around 11:30, so if I eat early, I might break up my home-snack into two portions and eat the second one if I start to get hungry before bed.
5. I ordered some whey protein. From what I recently read online, losing weight and feeling satiated has a lot to do with finding the right "macros" for yourself (proportions of carbs, fat, and protein). For me, being mostly vegetarian (I do eat fish maybe once every week or two), going lower in the carb department is not as easy as it is for meat-eaters. I can't just have a chicken breast and some broccoli! Instead, I am going to incorporate the whey protein into my second snack most days. I also plan to eat a fair amount of nonfat cottage cheese and eggs. This is not hard, as I love both of those foods and eat them regularly anyway.
6. Budget in my normal "treats" from time to time. Rider and I have a standing tradition where we go to get fast food tacos on Taco Tuesday. I usually get three and add a side of sour cream. I went to the restaurant's website and looked up how many calories they are, and having three of them
without sour cream is within my calorie budget. I usually never get sides or soda anyway, so all I'll be missing is the sour cream, which is not a big deal.
...
According to the tracking program and various calculators online, if I keep all of this up, I will lose about a pound every four to six days. I've got eight pounds to lose before I'm in my "reasonable" range where I stop feeling self-conscious, and an additional five pounds to lose before I edge into the top of my "ideal" range, where I generally look at myself and feel pretty damned good.
For me, personally, with my frame (medium-small), shape (not curvy, tend to gain around the middle and in the face), and height (5' 3.75"), my weight ranges tend to be as follows:
< 109: Too skinny (have only been here twice since reaching full height, due to being broke)—all bones and jutting angles.
109-113: Borderline too skinny but still looking pretty good (hung out here for most of my teen years and early twenties by default)—slightly flatter chested than I'd like, but everything else is looking good.
114-118: Ideal range, where everything looks good on me and I'm totally happy with all my proportions (pretty elusive—I tend to either hang out above or overshoot to below). I have nice fullness in the spots that are supposed to be full, but I still have enough waist to actually look like a slim hourglass.
119–123: Upper ideal, where I'm still pretty happy but I need to start being careful (this is where I spent most of my mid-twenties by default). Mostly OK everywhere else, but the gut and upper arms start to protrude.
124–127: Start to look distinctly keg-like around the middle, with some muffin-topping. Cheeks get chubby, deepening smile lines, making me look older and somehow making my teeth look bigger. I start to think I look "hobbit-y" or "chipmunk-y," but at least my boobs look nice. (Hung out too often here the past ten years, mostly when drinking too much.)
128–136: DANGER, DANGER! I get rolls of solid fat around the middle that actually HURT when I bend sideways and SWEAT while I drive.
Slight double chin emerges and chipmunk cheeks turn into a fullness all over my face that makes me think of teachers when I was a kid—the total vanishing of cheekbones. Recently, I start to get ripples on upper arms, thighs, and stomach. Little to no waistline to speak of. No additional improvement to boobs or butt—in full keg-mode now, where all gains go to bad places. (This is my second visit to this terrible place, and I want to leave and never come back.)
> 136: Hopefully I will never get here.
